Helen of Troy names new CEO

By Antoinette Alexander

EL PASO, Texas — Helen of Troy, whose personal care portfolio includes Pert, Brut and Bed Head, has appointed Julien Mininberg, as CEO, effective March 1, the beginning of the company’s new fiscal year.

Mininberg, who currently serves as CEO and president of Helen of Troy’s Healthcare/Home Environment segment (Kaz and PUR), will succeed Gerald Rubin, who is stepping down as CEO and president and resigning from the board, effective immediately, to serve as CEO of River Oaks Properties Ltd., an El Paso commercial real estate firms.

Thomas Benson, SVP and CFO, will serve as interim CEO until Mininberg assumes his new role.

The board also announced that it has decided to separate the roles of chairman and CEO. Effective immediately, the board has appointed Timothy Meeker, an independent director, to succeed Rubin as chairman. The board intends to nominate Mininberg as a director to stand for election at the company’s 2014 annual meeting.

As a result of the CEO change, the company expects to record a charge of approximately $16.3 million (after giving effect to taxes), or 50 cents per fully diluted share, in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2014 ending February 28, 2014, which reflects payments required under Rubin’s employment agreement. The company expects to realize net savings in CEO compensation in fiscal year 2015 of approximately $30 million (after giving effect to taxes), or 92 cents per fully diluted share, which is net of the new CEO’s target compensation expense.

Mininberg has been with Kaz since 2006, becoming president in 2007 and CEO in 2010. Before joining Kaz, Mininberg spent 15 years at Procter & Gamble, where he spent four years in general management and 11 years in marketing. His P&G career was split evenly between the United States and Latin America: in the United States, he focused on marketing as brand manager in P&G's Healthcare division; in Latin America, he was marketing director for the company's cleaning products division and later managed all of P&G’s business in Central America.